Page 35 of Wild Tempest

The clouds had darkened. Another storm was rolling in. Lightning flashed in the distance, and thunder cracked, echoing across the sky.

The tough part would be getting Dale over the gunwale and down to the RHIB. I didn't have a harness.

It turned out that my concern was unwarranted. Both the RHIB and the tender that Tempest had taken from the Titan Deep were gone.

Sweat slicked my skin, and my pulse elevated. Someone had released the mooring lines from the cleats. I knew I had properly secured the RHIB. The line couldn't have just come undone by itself.

This was no accident.

My eyes scanned the horizon, looking for the small boats. Lost in the haze, they were nowhere to be seen. From this distance, the Titan was barely visible. At least it was still in position. The Morya hadn't drifted too far. But that was subject to change.

“Change of plans," I said, then informed the others of the bad news. My accusing eyes found Tempest. "Did you mess with the lines when you boarded the boat?”

“What!?” She swallowed hard and looked at me with fear in her eyes. "No! Why would I do something like that? I made sure I properly tied off the boat. I didn't touch your line.”

"Somebody did.”

"Then there’s somebody else on this boat.”

I didn't know what to believe, but my skeptical gaze persisted. I knelt down beside Dale. "Is there anybody else on this boat that you know about?"

He looked at me with weak eyes. "I haven't seen anybody, but I hear things. A noise. A clunk. Sometimes I think I hear voices. But when you’re out here alone, your mind can play tricks on you.” He paused. “I'm telling you, this boat is cursed.”

"Could Paul or Norm still be alive?”

Dale shook his head. "That's just not possible. I seen them both die with my own eyes. And I can tell you, neither of them came back to life.”

It was possible that somebody else aboard the boat had taken off in the RHIB or the tender. Maybe they were on their way back to the Titan. Maybe we had given them a way off the boat.

“Where are Paul’s and Norm’s bodies?”

“I buried them at sea. I figured they deserved as much. Besides, I didn’t want fresh corpses stinking up the place anymore than it already does.” He looked at Tempest. “Sorry, hon.”

She gave an accepting nod with a sad face.

“I figured I’d get around to the skeletons eventually.”

Rain began to fall.

“You feel up to moving?” I asked Dale.

“I sure as hell don’t want you to leave me here in the rain.”

Dale was pretty weak.

JD and I carried him to the superstructure and helped him to the captain’s stateroom. He’d been living there for the last few weeks.

Dale had lost a significant amount of blood. We got him situated in bed, and Tempest stayed with him while we searched the boat.

We headed down to the galley and looked for a sports drink that would help Dale replenish glucose and electrolytes. While we were there, we checked the food stores. Like Dale had said, there were plenty of canned goods. Lots of soup, canned meat, and canned vegetables. I didn't dare open the freezer. Without power, the stench of rotten food would likely be atrocious.

Thunder rumbled, rattling the bulkheads. The rain came down hard, pattering against the superstructure. The boat rolled.

We grabbed a few cans of soup, spaghetti and meatballs, more bottled water, and picked up an IV stand from the med bay on the way back to Dale's stateroom.

I kept a wary eye along the way, convinced someone else either was, or had been, aboard this boat. It was the only logical explanation.

I wasn't keen on eating anything that came from this ship, but there would come a time when we had no choice. If it was sealed in a can or in a bottle, I figured it was reasonably safe. There was no doubt in my mind the chaos had come from a breach of containment in the lab. By now, we'd all been exposed, and I figured the lab was as good a place as any to get some answers.